The middle years of Martin Amis

Abstract

This essay was commissioned by Rod Mengham and Philip Tew for their volume British Fiction Today (London and New York: Continuum, 2006). Essays for this volume were specifically requested to focus on writers’ work since 1990. Thus the essay does not pretend to be a detailed account of Amis’s entire career, only to describe, contextualize and assess one stretch of it. The essay was written in summer 2005; hence the last major Amis work referred to here is Yellow Dog (2003). The system of referencing also reflects the specifications given the editors. British Fiction Today appeared in autumn 2006. In that printed version of the essay, the editors have made certain alterations. The version here, for what it’s worth, is all my own work